(a) Which of these two texts are primary sources? Give reasons for your answer. (b) What is the ‘Columbian Exchange’? Why do you think it is called that? (c) What were the lasting results of the conquests mentioned by Michael Wood? (d) Do you think he believes the conquistadores were correct in what they did? Give reasons for your answer.
(e) List three images used in the poem to show that the Aztecs have been defeated? (f) Why do you think the water turned red? (g) Why does the poet think his inheritance [the city of Tenochtitlan] is dead? (h) What does the poet mean in his final verse? Give reasons for your answer. (i) What are the differences between the two sources. (j) The two texts were written almost 500 years apart. What difference has this made to the views of the authors?
HISTORICAL EMPATHY
5. Give an account of the life of a girl or boy in Central or South America when the Spanish first arrived using the following headings: (a) Customs of your civilisation (b) Religion (c) What you think about the Spanish who arrived (d) Life under the Spanish conquistadores
FURTHER RESEARCH
6. Choose an important personality from this period and create a project about him or her. Examples could be • Francisco Pizarro • Hernando Cortés • Christopher Columbus • Dona Marina or La Malinche (a local woman who acted as a translator for Cortés) • Mary Prince (a West Indian slave) • Bartholomé de las Casas
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Mentor Digital Resources For more information on Conquest and Colonisation go to mentorbooks.ie/resources